Just though I would post this here. This is a single-launch Kerbal landing and return mission I just completed last night. https://imgur.com/a/ukOB9 I kept regular back-ups, so I might go exploring around Ablate later. As it was, this ship took 3 real life hours to land on Ablate and about 6 to return, turns out nuclear engines and rocket engines can be a little slow, who knew? The ship is full stock and no cheats were used at any point, the launcher was my 4th design and it worked on the second try, I am not certain of its reliability. Kerbal Engineer was used to design most of the ship, although I did hand-calculate the delta-v for the return stage by hand several times. Notes for others attempting this mission: --20.2k delta-v from Kerbol orbit to Ablate is a good estimate. I was left with about 100 fuel in the Ablate Drive stage. --About 15k delta-v is necessary from Ablate orbit back to Kerbin orbit. I got lucky and got an encounter earlier than expected, so I only used abot 13k delta-v. --In my case, the extra RCS tank was not at all necessary. The 15 units in the lander can would have been enough as I only used 2 units for docking. --Make the return stage as light as possible. By making my return segment just 500 kg lighter, I was able to lower my to-orbit mass by 50,000 kg --At Ablate altitude, a single 1x6 solar panel produces about 19.5 electricity/second. The means only about 1 panel per ion engine is required. --Your to-Ablate mass is absolutely vital. I used lander legs, but you could use lighter structural elements instead. I knew I would need to re-dock, so I used docking ports on the top segments and no decouplers. -- EVA jets are not strong enough to lift kerbals off of the surface, but it can allow them to jump very high, I added a ladder, but it may not be necessary.
